


Wilderness

by wingedmermaid



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: F/M, Fluff, M/M, Mention of family member death, Writing Exercise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-25
Updated: 2014-06-25
Packaged: 2018-02-06 04:13:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1843987
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wingedmermaid/pseuds/wingedmermaid
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bertolt and Jean are out on a hike when they find some unusual wildlife living out in the woods. (Or: I tried writing from a random prompt generator and this is what happened.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wilderness

**Author's Note:**

> Yes. So. This is mostly just fluff. I wrote it in a day and didn't really go too far into any of the big whys because mostly I just wanted to start something and then _actually finish it_. Comments and critiques are always welcome ♥
> 
> Also a shout-out to the wonderful [Val](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ValkyrieReborn/pseuds/ValkyrieReborn) for proofing this for me. Thank you!

A small body popped out of the forest in front of him and Bertolt nearly had a heart attack as he stumbled back and fought to keep his balance against the large hiking pack on his back.

“Hi!”

As he held a hand to his chest and tried to calm his pounding pulse he stared back at a wide smile and large brown eyes under a mop of chestnut brown hair that might have been a ponytail once. Now it was a birds-nest complete with sticks and leaves and a little twist of witch’s hair lichen. “Y... you’re...” Bertolt’s words seemed to hover just out of his reach as he took in torn and stained clothing and mud caked around bare toes. “H-h-human?”

They blinked then seemed to curl in on themselves, blushing a deep red under the green plant smears adorning their cheeks. “O-of course I am...!”

Faced with potential tears Bertolt pulled himself together. “Oh! No, I’m sorry. Of course you are, I was just...”

She, he was fairly certain now, sniffled and peered up at him through matted bangs. “Why would you _say_ something like that?”

“I-” Bertolt took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. You startled me. No one is supposed to be out here.”

She straightened up and gave him a severe look and he realized with a small shock that she barely came up to his chin. “You’re not hunting are you?” She pulled a wooden bow out from who even knew where and had an arrow nocked before he even had a chance to step back.

“N-no!” Bertolt held up his hands in front of him. “No! Just... just camping.”

“Bertolt!” The loud voice bounced off of the trees so it was hard to tell what direction it was coming from. “Where are you?!”

The girl rocked forward onto the balls of her feet, letting the bow hang down by her hip, and peered around Bertolt. “You have a friend?”

“Y-yeah...” Bertolt turned to look back down the faint trail he’d been following. “Over here, Jean!”

“Where are you from?” She asked curiously. 

“Trost city...” Bertolt examined her from the corner of his eye as he ran a hand through his short, dark hair. “Do you live out here...?”

“Sometimes.” she picked at something stuck to her hand.

“D-do you have a place to stay?”

She cocked her head at him. “Well... No. Does it matter?” There was a crashing in the bushes near them and they both turned to look. 

“Bertolt! What the hell do you think you- _what the fuck is that_?!” The slender young man wearing a similarly huge pack skidded to a stop and levelled a finger at the girl.

Sasha slid behind Bertolt and stared balefully at the newcomer.

“Jean.” Bertolt caught the other man’s pale brown eyes and tried to will him not to do anything else stupid while she was holding a weapon. “This is...”

“Sasha.” She said primly, stepping out again. “Sasha Braus.”

“Well, Sasha, this is Jean and I’m Bertolt.” The taller man kept his movements slow as he gestured at the blond and then himself.

“What-” Jean narrowed his eyes as he looked at her. “Are you a fuckin’ wild animal or something? When was the last time you had a bath?!”

She drew herself up to her full height — still a few inches shorter than Jean — and stared straight into his eyes. “You are _rude_. I’ve been hunting...” her voice trailed off into a soft mumble. “And the water’s really cold still...”

“ _Jean_ ,” Bertolt caught his eye and looked at the bow she was still holding. The blond man’s eyes widened when he saw it and he gave Bertolt a ‘what the hell are we still doing here?!’ scowl.

“Sasha,” Bertolt reached out very slowly to touch her shoulder. She didn’t flinch away. “How long have you been out here?”

She blinked and counted on her fingers. “Six months...?”

“All alone?” Bertolt asked softly.

“Bertolt, no,” Jean said.

“Well, of course.” She shrugged. “Da was gonna come with me but...” She jerked her head up and away like she’d heard something that Bertolt hadn’t.

“Do you want to come home with us? You don’t have to stay if you don’t like it.”

“ _No_ ,” Jean snapped.

Bertolt ignored him. “We have a spare room and the door locks from the inside. The window’s easy to climb out of, too.”

“ _Bertolt,_ ” Jean growled. “ _What are you doing_?”

Sasha turned back to Bertolt and regarded him thoughtfully for a long minute. “That... that sounds okay.” She relaxed again and hooked her bow over her shoulder before looking up at him curiously. “Do you have food?”

“O-of course,” Bertolt said, a little confused. 

“Okay. I’ll be right back!” She disappeared into the undergrowth with hardly a sound.

“Bertolt...” Jean walked over and grabbed him by the front of the shirt, voice tight with rage, “What. Are. You. _Doing_?”

“Jean she’s all alone out here. We can’t just leave her.”

“She looks like she’s doing just fine,” Jean hissed back but let his shirt go. “We don’t need a wild animal in the house and we certainly don’t need a charity case. What are Reiner and Connie going to say?” 

Bertolt sighed softly and looked after the girl. Jean fidgeted beside him, crossing and uncrossing his arms as he watched the taller man. 

“Oh for fuck’s sake. _Fine_.” Jean finally growled crossly. Bertolt turned back to give him a relieved look only to find Jean’s index finger hovering in front of his nose. “ _But_ I am reserving the right to drop her off at the Psyche ward at any time. Or social services. I mean, how old is she anyway, fifteen?”

Bertolt frowned and shook his head, unsure himself of what was even under all that dirt. He’d only really been able to tell she was female from her voice.

 

 

About four hours later they pulled into their driveway. As they climbed out of the car a big blond man popped his head out the door. “What happened? You two forget something?”

“ _No_ ,” Jean growled, patience at its limit after being subjected to questions about what kind of foods she could eat if she stayed with them for two hours. She’d also eaten all of his snacks before falling asleep.

“Reiner! Hi. We, um, ran into something...” Bertolt ducked his head and walked around to open the back door. The girl was passed out across the blanket Jean had insisted on spreading over the seat (so they didn’t have to clean the upholstery later) and drooling. 

“Literally?!” Reiner’s voice was alarmed as he jogged over to see. “Do I need to call the wildlife rehab centre?”

“You probably should,” Jean grumbled as he started carrying things inside. He pushed the door open and hollered inside. “Hey, Connie, give us a hand?”

“What the _hell_?” Reiner stared at the dirty little creature.

“We found her living out there.” Bertolt said as he unbuckled her seatbelt and gently shook her shoulder. “Sasha.”

“ _What_.” His voice was flat. “I mean, from the state of her I’d believe it but- How long has she been out there?!”

“Six months, she thinks.” Bertolt shook a little harder, “Sasha? You need to get- Ooph!”

She jerked upright and pulled her foot out of Bertolt’s stomach as he doubled over. “Oh! Oh, I’m sorry! Oh shit...”

“’S... kay...” Bertolt gasped as he tried to get his breath back.

Reiner chuckled and wrapped a burly arm around Bertolt’s shoulders to keep him up. Luckily although the blond was a little shorter than Bertolt he was both bigger and stronger. “With reflexes like that I can almost believe it.”

“Who is that?” She was eyeing Reiner.

“Rei...ner...” Bertolt wheezed.

“Reiner,” the big man repeated and held out his free hand. “Nice to meet you, Sasha.”

She reached out and took it tentatively in hers but jerked back when a small man zipped out of the house and over to the car. “-found a _wild girl_ in the forest? That is so fuckin’ _cool_!”

“And this is Connie,” Reiner setted a large hand on the man’s buzzcut hair as he stopped to look in the car. “Connie, Sasha.”

“Hey!” Despite the restraint Connie still managed to surge forward a few feet. “Did you really live out there all alone?! Jean said you ate everything in the car on the way back!”

Jean grumbled something under his breath as he popped open the back of the car to grab a second load of stuff.

Bertolt, recovered now, stepped back to give her some room. “Why don’t you come inside?”

She turned wide eyes away from Connie then nodded and slid out of the car pulling a beat-up and dirty backpack behind her along with her bow and a quiver of arrows. “I didn’t eat _everything_.”

“We got this, Bertl, why don’t you go ahead and get her settled,” Reiner said softly, smacking him on the shoulder hard enough to stagger him.

Bertolt walked her into the house. It was kind of a slow process since Sasha stopped to gawk at everything but he eventually got her up to the spare bedroom. She carefully investigated both the lock and the window before she pushed her things underneath the bed. 

“Do... do you want to take a shower?” he asked hesitantly.

Her smile lit up like the sun. “Can I?”

Bertolt smiled back. “Of course you can. Any time you want.” He went and got her a towel from the closet and then took her to the bathroom. He showed her the lever that switched from the tap to the shower and apologized for not having any shampoos that didn’t smell like men. She just waved him off and locked the door behind him. Bertolt stared at the door for a moment, at a bit of a loss, before turning to go back downstairs.

Connie had vanished but Reiner was helping Jean put away the last of the camping stuff. The smaller man was clearly ignoring Bertolt as he put food back in the fridge but the muscular blond stopped what he was doing to grin up at the tall man. “I- I’m sorry, Reiner. We ruined your weekend alone with Connie...” 

“Naw, don’t worry about it! We didn’t have any big plans anyway. And it sounds like you two had quite an adventure even if it was a short trip.”

Bertolt nodded slowly. “... You’re not mad that I brought her back are you?”

Reiner shot a wry glance at Jean’s stiff back. “Naw, I would’ve been pissed if you left her out there though. She must have been through some serious shit to be that far out for so long all on her lonesome. And it’s not like we can’t afford to help her get back on her feet between the four of us.”

“Thank you.” Bertolt said, smiling softly to himself as he went to dig through the shelf where they kept their eclectic selection of cookbooks for something to make for dinner.

 

 

She stayed in the shower until the hot water ran out. Bertolt, busy with dinner preparations, heard Connie yell something up the stairs then stomp up after receiving a softer answer and decided that everything was well under control. When he emerged from the kitchen the girl was sitting on the living room floor with Connie perched on the couch behind her working a brush that still had the store tag hanging from it through her long wet hair. She was dressed in what looked like a pair of Reiner’s PJ pants and one of Connie’s old graphic superhero t-shirts. Bertolt couldn’t stop a smile at just how big the pants were on her thin frame.

“So, your dad’s dead then?” Connie asked, adding another little twig to the small pile of forest debris beside him. “Sorry to hear that. Mine, too.”

“Really?” Sasha tilted her head back to look at him.

“Yeah,” Connie stuck out his tongue in concentration as he worked through a particularly bad tangle. “Mom’s alive but she’s in a care facility. Her mind never recovered. So my little sis and bro are off at boarding school right now. Good thing dad left us some money or I’d be in big shit. You can meet the kids when they come home for summer vacation.”

“I’m sorry,” Sasha said softly as she fidgeted with a fold of the pants.

“Thanks.” Connie smiled and ruffled her hair. “Still hurts but you gotta keep moving, you know?”

“Yeah,” she smiled and it was small and soft. When she noticed Bertolt standing there she straightened up and beamed at him. “Hey!”

Bertolt tried to pull his smile back from where it had faded away into nothing while he listened. “H-hi.”

“Look at what Connie gave me!” She squealed and held up a small shopping bag. Bertolt walked over, looked inside, and felt the blush rush over his face so fast he felt dizzy. It contained a package of plain coloured panties, hair bands, a tooth brush, deodorant, some feminine toiletries, a half-eaten package of cookies and... a box of condoms.

“ _Connie_ ,” Bertolt gasped out and turned a horrified look on the smaller man who was still working on her hair.

“What?” Connie didn’t even look away from the knot he was teasing out. “’S good to be prepared for everything. She’s an adult. I asked.”

Sasha was happily fishing out a cookie. “I haven’t had chocolate in _ages_ ,” she cooed at the biscuit.

“You... are...?” Bertolt said as he watched her shove the entire thing in her mouth then tried to ignore the moaning noises she made while she chewed. He was having trouble keeping up. At second glance he could see that despite how thin she was she was rather... developed...

“Twenty-two. Showed me her ID.” Connie let out a satisfied hum as the tangle came loose. “We’re going to have to go shopping for bras and some other stuff tomorrow though.”

Bertolt was beginning to think it might be better if he fainted after all. He focused on her face to keep his eyes from wandering again and couldn’t help but notice that her face was all fine, high cheekbones and large eyes. “Bra shopping...”

“Well, yeah, did you see her clothes? I just threw them right in the trash. Totally ruined.” Connie patted Sasha’s head soothingly as she turned to make some angry noises at him through a mouthful of cookie. “Yeah, I know, I’m sorry. You took really good care of them. But we’ll find you some new ones you’ll like even better.” She made a satisfied noise and turned back to regard the dark TV, humming happily to herself.

Connie gave Bertolt a level look and pointed the brush at him. “You’re gonna have to man up, dude. They’re just pretty fabric.”

“I... um, Sasha! Do you want to watch some TV...?” Bertolt walked over to get the remote. 

Her eyes were wide and shining even though her mouth was full again and Bertolt smiled as he flicked on the TV. He sat down on the other end of the couch and flipped through a few channels before she reached out and lightly touched his hand. “Do... do you have the food network?”

“Of course,” Bertolt smiled and punched in the number as Connie laughed.

“You sure are obsessed with food,” the smaller man said.

“All I’ve had is what I could catch!” she protested.

“Yeah, can’t blame you.” Connie began pulling her hair back into a ponytail and they all lapsed into silence as the cooking competition in front of them went into full swing. After a few minutes Bertolt glanced over at Sasha and found her with her eyes riveted to the TV and her mouth hanging open. He let out a snort but she didn’t even seem to hear him.

“Jesus Christ haven’t you ever seen a TV before?” Jean spared the girl an angry look as he purposely walked the extra distance to cross in front of the TV instead of just going behind the couch.

She snapped her mouth closed. “I have! Just.. not for a while...”

Connie tugged lightly at Sasha’s hair and bent down to murmur something softly to her. Bertolt pressed his lips together and stood to follow Jean into the kitchen. The slender man was leaning by the sink as he downed a glass of water.

“... Jean.” Bertolt stopped a few feet away from him.

“Bertolt.” Jean didn’t even look at him.

Bertolt took a deep breath, thinking about all the things he could say, should say, but the timer went off and he let his shoulders slump before stepping away to pull on his oven mitts. He took the roast out of the oven. “C-can you call everyone for dinner please?”

There was a long silence and then the rustle of fabric as Jean moved. “Yeah.” 

Bertolt began to set the food out on the table.

 

 

Despite Jean’s continued grumpy silence dinner had been a lively affair. Sasha had eaten almost as much as Reiner and Connie combined and Bertolt made a mental note to buy larger portions next time he went shopping. She seemed to get along well with Reiner and had clearly already established some kind of rapport with Connie. She chatted happily and spent so much time describing how delicious the food was that he began to wonder when exactly she was finding the time to put so much of it away. 

After dinner she insisted on helping with the clean-up and then they all retired to the living room to watch a movie. Reiner and Connie took the loveseat and Bertolt squished himself into a corner of the couch. Sasha plopped down on the floor in front again explaining that the couch was too soft and Jean slid into the other corner staying as far away from the girl as he could manage. Once again as soon as the TV was turned on she was completely enthralled and Bertolt found himself more interested in watching her face and reactions than he was in the movie. Her reactions were very visceral, tensing and flinching in response to even the slightest amount of suspense and even tearing up when the protagonist hit their low point. 

“Alright guys and gal we’re gonna header.” Reiner stood up and stretched as the credits began to roll. “’Night Sasha. Welcome to the house.”

She pulled her eyes from the screen with an effort and waved to them. “Thank you again!”

“No problem!” Connie tugged lightly on her ponytail before he followed Reiner off down the hall to the room they shared. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” she called, that soft, small smile suffusing her face in quiet happiness again as she looked down at the half-collapsed plastic bag sitting between her feet. Bertolt felt an ache in his chest and went to get a blanket to wrap around her. It was one of those soft faux fur ones and when they started another movie he saw her sliding a hand slowly up and down the fabric for a long time, like she couldn’t quite get over having such a simple thing. She settled back against the couch but before the movie was even half over he saw her head beginning to loll to the side, only jerking back up when a sound effect startled her into wakefulness. 

“Here, Sasha.” Bertolt reached down and gently lifted her up onto the couch. She was so light. “I know it’s too soft but it will be better to sleep on than the floor.”

She just smiled gratefully at him then reached down and dug around in the bag that still lay on the floor. She pressed something into his hand. “I’m sorry for kicking you, Bertolt.” Then she stuck her hand out at Jean. The blond blinked and slowly stretched out his own. “It’s my last one.” She told him seriously as she placed a chocolate cookie in his palm. “I saved it for you because you gave me all your granola bars in the car.” Then she lay down and curled up on the cushion between them, hugging her knees to her chest as her breathing evened out and then slowed.

Jean stared at the cookie in his hand. He looked over at Bertolt who held up the half a cookie she’d given him with a tiny smile. Jean stared back down at his cookie for a long time before he finally opened his mouth to say, “Well... _fuck_.” Bertolt bit back a laugh and watched the blond scowl fiercely at the TV while he ate the offending sweet with angry little bites.

**Author's Note:**

> [Come visit me on Tumblr.](http://wingedmermaid.tumblr.com/post/89844514657/wilderness)


End file.
